The Mech Touch

After several days of meetings and setting policy, Ves finally tidied up his responsibilities. He could leave most of the other affairs to his underlings. The LMC was in the process of reorganizing itself while the Larkinson Clan finally stood on its own legs.

With Gloriana busy with her own obligations as well as recovering from her spiritual exhaustion, Ves did not feel like embarking on some of his next mech projects. He postponed the start of his Larkinson mech design project for later.

As for upgrading the Shield of Samar, Ves thought that involving Gloriana for what was supposed to be a simple upgrade would be redundant. The only reason why he didn't embark on this project immediately was because he didn't have enough Breyer alloy yet to replace the armor system of Jannzi's personal mech.

The Aurora Titan model was a very big mech! Though it fell short of a true heavy mech, the super-medium space knight was still a brick in space, with most of its mass occupied by its hefty shield and armor coverage!

Upgrading the Shield of Samar's armor system as well as its power reactor and some other minor system would definitely elevate its performance to a level close to a second-class mech!

At the very least, its defensive parameters would definitely meet the standard of a second-class mech like the Paravin!

"It's too bad I can't replace its internals." He sighed. "Not without putting a huge amount of effort in revising its internal architecture."

That went beyond the scope of a minor revision. Ves opted to wait until he was ready to revise the entire design. Depending on his circumstances, he might opt to keep it a third-class mech or elevate into a fully-fledged second-class mech.

The latter was actually a really bad idea. The Aurora Titan was basically a design filled with compromises and bad choices. He didn't set out to design a mech that fell under the super-medium weight class. He was forced to embrace this unusual choice because he was insistent on accommodating a polarizing module in its design!

Much of this reasoning wasn't valid anymore when it came to second-class mechs. The tech and material level was so much higher that a polarizing module only took up the space of a backpack module or even smaller!

It was perfect doable for Ves to design a medium space knight with standard proportions and decent mobility while still exhibiting all of the strengths of the Aurora Titan!

Yet if Ves designed such a mech, would it be a successor or a replacement of the Aurora Titan Mark I?

This was a very important question, because it determined the future of the Shield of Samar. This mech was extremely pivotal not only because it imprinted on Jannzi and developed in a unique direction, but also contained one of Lucky's highly valuable gems!

Ves wasn't sure if he could recover the gem if he dismantled the Shield of Samar, but he had a hunch that it wouldn't be possible.

If that was the case, then Ves had to do his best to keep the Shield of Samar relevant by upgrading its capabilities to keep up with the time!

Perhaps it wasn't the best idea, but Jannzi appeared to be determined to pilot her Shield of Samar for her entire career!

While this kind of behavior wasn't unheard of, it was extremely rare. It was too difficult for a mech pilot to stick to a single mech for the rest of their lives, especially when mechs got destroyed or damaged all of the time!

They were war machines after all. Battle was in their lifeblood!

Therefore, it was in Jannzi and Ves' best interest that he kept the essence of the Aurora Titan design alive when he decided to update it properly in the future.

If Ves had to design a second-class super-medium mech, then he would unflinchingly do so! Even if it made absolutely no sense to the market, as long as he had at least one customer in the form of a current expert candidate and future expert pilot, it was more than worth the effort!

For now though, Ves merely aimed for a quick fix, so he only briefly visited the design lab and delegated much of the grunt work to his two design teams.

"I want both teams to propose how to best replace the armor system and the power reactor of the Aurora Titan with these following components." He announced. "I'll let the both of you work on this separately so we can compare the results at the end. The team who designed the best version will receive a reward from me. Any questions?"

Ves did not intend to push off all of the work to his design teams. Regardless of the results, Ves would go over their choices and override them with his own solutions as needed. This allowed him to invest a lot less time on this project.

He only felt a little guilty about the lack of thoroughness by employing this method. Jannzi wouldn't be able to get the best version of the Shield of Samar, but Ves did not mind too much.

The amazing defensive qualities of the Breyer alloy was enough to mitigate some of the flaws that might result from this decision!

"Relying on superior materials to overcome the shortcomings of a design is the mark of a lazy mech designer." He sighed after he put the Tovar Design Team and the Ylvaine Design Team to work.

Both teams were named by the character of their mech designers. The first team still consisted entirely of young Tovar mech designers, while the second team mainly consisted of Ylvainan mech designers eager to work for Bright Martyr.

The only exception was Mayer Torto. He was clearly an oddball amongst the devout and fanatical Ylvainans. Still, despite his youth and inexperience, Mayer managed to get along with his religious colleagues.

"How are you adjusting to the LMC?" Ves asked when he pulled Mayer aside.

"It's.. strange. I understand the LMC is undergoing a hectic period, but my new job isn't what I've expected."

"This is only temporary." Ves emphasized. "We'll embark on a proper design project soon. I'll be spending a lot more time in the design lab where I can guide and tutor you more extensively. For now, you should look to your colleagues to learn the essentials of working in a design team. They have much to teach."

The Novice Mech Designer understood. As one of the most junior mech designers in the LMC, he shouldn't expect too much at the start.

However, that did not mean that Ves intended to neglect the younger mech designer forever. With his spiritual potential, Mayer had the potential to be great one day!

After packing Mayer off, he decided to venture to the Ion Tracker, the flagship of the Battle Criers.

It was time to meet with the pirate designers the Battle Criers had captured during their months-long deployment.

Several different thoughts passed through his mind as he tried to determine what he should do with his prisoners.

He didn't really have a plan for them. When he initially issued the order to the Battle Criers, he merely treated it as a side priority. Once he met the plagiarizes face-to-face, Ves envisioned taunting them before shooting them in the head in order to satisfy his need for revenge.

Yet now that he became used to bearing the mantle of responsibility, he felt ashamed for ordering their capture in the first place.

He didn't know what he was thinking back then. What did it matter if he captured a couple of pirate designers who had the temerity to rip off his mech designs?

While he felt affronted by their awful attempts at putting a new spin on his work, they were so far below his level that squashing them would only dirty his soles.

It was beneath him. Why should he care about their trivial violations? If Ves could turn back time, he would have told the Battle Criers to stop bothering about this matter.

Too bad it was too late.

"What do you think I should, Lucky? Should I kill off the pirate designers, turn them into test subjects or do something else with the bastards?"

"Meow."

Lucky playfully circled around the Larkinson Mandate that floated after Ves with the help of a custom-built levitation brace.

Due to the tome's extreme importance to the clan, Ves did not wish to let it out of his sight. It was fairly easy for him to build a brace that could clamp on the book and allow it to follow after him. Even though he could have carried the book in his hands, that would have become a little tedious whenever he needed to put it down in order to employ both of his hands.

Nitaa followed after them both. Her suit of combat armor thudded loudly as its weight thudded loudly against the deck.

"If I may make a suggestion, sir, you should get rid of them." She spoke in one of her rare bouts of initiative. "Pirate designers are irredeemable criminals. There is a reason why they have stooped to designing mechs for pirates and other underground scum."

"I know."

Ves actually feared becoming one as well if he ran afoul with the MTA or the CFA. Even now, the possibility continued to loom over his head. He already violated so many of their taboos, and only managed to get away with them because he managed to hide his misdeeds.

There was a risk in associating with pirate designers, that was for sure. However, he could not bring himself to kill them off, at least for now. He intended to make a decision after he met with the prisoners and gained a better idea of their character.

They eventually reached the brig. Though Commander Cinnabar wasn't there to meet him, Ves nonetheless smiled as he greeted a familiar figure.

"Dietrich! How are you doing these days?"

As one of the few non-Kinners in a Kinner mercenary corps, Dietrich stood out with his distinctly different demeanor. Ves carefully inspected his friend and found that his fellow Cloudy Curtainer seemed content with his new lot in life.

"I've managed to fit in with the Battle Criers, though not completely." Dietrich readily said. "They're a good bunch of people, though why they are so dedicated to loyalty is a mystery to me. I like it, though. After the Whalers let me down after my old man died, it's reassuring to serve and fight alongside buddies who I can trust in the heat of the moment."

Ves slapped Dietrich in the back. "That's great to hear. Please lead me to the prisoners. How well-behaved are they?"

"Some of them are more.. feral than than we like. It's like they're not really human when their mood swings in the wrong direction. We've been forced to activate some of the restraint mechanisms of their cells in order to prevent them from bashing the cells and such."

That sounded a bit strange to Ves, but then again the people born in the frontier were never right in the head. He expected better from mech designers who grew up in civilized space, though. He recalled that Ronnie Blast used to come from the Bright Republic according to the intelligence he accessed.

"Here he is. Ronnie Blast." Dietrich smiled and waved his hand. The energy screen in front of them winked out, revealing a bare white cell with nothing but a bed where Ronnie Blast was lying bored out of his skull.

"FINALLY!" The young, blond-haired man instantly perked up. "I WAS GOING CRAZY HERE! THERE'S NOTHING TO DO HERE! CAN YOU PLEASE LET ME GO!? I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING! WHATEVER YOU THINK I'VE DONE, I'M INNOCENT!"

Ves unconsciously leaned back from the man's screams. Was this Ronnie Blast?!

"Yeah." Dietrich remarked. "Ronnie here is always like this whenever we show up. We have to put some sense in him whenever we want him to act normal."

"YOU!" Ronnie exuberant pointed at Ves! "YOU'RE IN CHARGE, RIGHT?! PLEASE LET ME GO! THERE'S NO REASON FOR YOU TO KEEP ME CAPTIVE! I'M JUST A MECH DESIGNER!"

Ves slowly began to glower. Perhaps Nitaa was right.